Abstract
Bernard Shaw had never been shy about engaging with Americans on American political issues, including foreign policy. He had been a strong and outspoken advocate of American involvement in the First World War, and an equally strong supporter of Woodrow Wilson’s proposal at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference to create a League of Nations as a means of averting future wars. The decision by the US Congress not to join the League, despite resolute efforts by Wilson, was deeply disappointing to Shaw, who took the view that America’s isolation would inevitably lead to its being seen as a rival to British and European allies, rather than a partner. And so Shaw provocatively interpreted British Prime Minister Lloyd George’s June 1921 statement that British sea power is “the basis of the whole Empire’s existence” as a declaration of war on America.
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Abbreviations
- CL :
-
Bernard Shaw, Collected Letters. Ed. Dan H. Laurence. 4 vols. New York: Viking Penguin, 1965–1988.
- CPP :
-
Bernard Shaw, Collected Plays with Their Prefaces. Dan H. Laurence, Editorial Supervisor. 7 volumes. London: Max Reinhardt, the Bodley Head, 1970–1974.
- HRC:
-
Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Bernard Shaw Collection.
- IBDB:
-
Internet Broadway Data Base (www.ibdb.com).
- LSE:
-
London School of Economics, Bernard Shaw Business Papers.
- Yale:
-
Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Theatre Guild Archives).
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Conolly, L.W. (2022). Political Shaw. In: Bernard Shaw on the American Stage. Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04241-6_10
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